fae9e5677a
* fix(update): stop reading gateway identity off the restart watcher's argv (#107002) The detached restart watcher is spawned as `python -c <watcher source> <old_pid> <python> -m hermes_cli.main gateway run`. Its trailing argv is the command it will spawn LATER, but the canonical matchers read identity straight off the joined command line, so the watcher itself was classified as a live `gateway run` process — the documented "never infer process identity from argv substrings" bug class, on the exact surface `hermes update` uses to verify a post-update relaunch. Also budget the post-relaunch liveness poll against the watcher's own deadline: the watcher respawns the gateway only after the PID it was handed exits, so a 30 s window can expire before the relaunch it verifies was scheduled to start. * test(windows-live): run the gateway-ancestor harness parent from a script file A `python -c <src>` parent is an interpreter running inline source and carries no readable Hermes identity, so it is no longer a gateway to any classifier — the harness's own comment already said a realistic gateway argv is not a -c blob. * test(windows-live): share one sleeper SCRIPT across the live process-topology fixtures Four live Windows E2E files stood processes up as `python -c "sleep" <hermes argv tail>`. That shape no longer carries a readable Hermes identity, so the fixtures stopped standing in for the gateways they simulate. One shared sleeper script replaces the -c spelling. * fix(gateway): drop the duplicated _INLINE_SOURCE_FLAG_RE definition The constant was emitted twice around command_line_runs_inline_source. Same pattern both times, so behaviour is unchanged — but one definition is enough. * test(stderr-timestamp): run the gateway-lookalike children from script files Both lookalikes stood a gateway child up as `python -c <src> <gateway tail>`. That shape no longer carries a readable Hermes identity (#107002), so the wrapper correctly stopped treating them as gateway spawns and the tests failed. A `-c` tail is data for a program the inline source may spawn LATER, never the child's own identity — the real wrapper child is `python -m hermes_cli.main gateway run`, which has no `-c`. Running the stand-ins from a real script file restores what the tests mean to assert without depending on the misread. * test(windows-live): restore the tempfile import dropped with the local sleeper helper * test(windows-live): wait on the sleeper SCRIPT name, not its source text The live fixtures proved argv visibility by waiting for `time.sleep(120)` in the spawned process's command line. That string only ever appeared there because the sleeper was spelled `python -c "import time; time.sleep(120)"`; now that it runs from a file the source is in the file, so the probe timed out ("sleeper argv never visible") even though the argv was perfectly visible. Wait on the script name instead, exported as SLEEPER_MARKER next to the script so the probe and the spelling cannot drift apart again. * fix(tests,gateway): keep the live-system guard blocking -c-wrapped gateway spawns The #107002 identity fix made _gateway_command_subcommand return None for 'python -c <src> … -m hermes_cli.main gateway run'. tests/_fixtures/live_system_guard.py shares that matcher, so the autouse guard stopped blocking the detached restart watcher: real gateways leaked out of the e2e run and squatted the webhook port. Add gateway.status.gateway_spawn_intent_subcommand — the spawn-intent mirror of the identity matcher, peeling the inline-source wrapper token-wise and re-running the same canonical matcher on each suffix (still no substring matching) — and point the guard at it. Read-only subcommands stay spawnable. * fix(gateway): make the inline-source option walk value-aware so -X utf8 -c is not read as a gateway The walk that decides whether a command line is an interpreter running inline source (`python -c <src> ...`) treated every token starting with `-` as a flag and the first non-flag token as the end of the option block. CPython options that take a SEPARATE operand (-X/-W/-Q, --check-hash-based-pycs, --jit) break that model: the operand was mistaken for the end of the block, so the walk never reached the -c behind it and the watcher was read as a live gateway again -- exactly the #107002 misclassification, one shape further out. - Reuse the canonical operand sets from hermes_state_holders rather than hand-rolling a second copy (AGENTS.md: parser-derived flag sets). - Walk case-preserving tokens: operand-taking -Q/-W/-X must not be conflated with operand-less -q/-b, so callers no longer lowercase before the walk. - Handle clustered short options precisely (-uc is inline source, -Xc is -X c). - Replace the ad-hoc _INLINE_SOURCE_FLAG_RE rescan in gateway_spawn_intent_subcommand with the index the same walk returns; the regex could not find spellings the walk accepts and would raise StopIteration. Reported by an automated review on PR #121635 and reproduced here. Refs #107002 --------- Co-authored-by: Austin Pickett <austinpickett@users.noreply.github.com>
Hermes Agent ☤
The self-improving AI agent built by Nous Research. It's the only agent with a built-in learning loop — it creates skills from experience, improves them during use, nudges itself to persist knowledge, searches its own past conversations, and builds a deepening model of who you are across sessions. Run it on a $5 VPS, a GPU cluster, or serverless infrastructure that costs nearly nothing when idle. It's not tied to your laptop — talk to it from Telegram while it works on a cloud VM.
Use any model you want — Nous Portal, OpenRouter, OpenAI, your own endpoint, and many others. Switch with hermes model — no code changes, no lock-in.
| A real terminal interface | Full TUI with multiline editing, slash-command autocomplete, conversation history, interrupt-and-redirect, and streaming tool output. |
| Lives where you do | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, and CLI — all from a single gateway process. Voice memo transcription, cross-platform conversation continuity. |
| A closed learning loop | Agent-curated memory with periodic nudges. Autonomous skill creation after complex tasks. Skills self-improve during use. FTS5 session search with LLM summarization for cross-session recall. Honcho dialectic user modeling. Compatible with the agentskills.io open standard. |
| Scheduled automations | Built-in cron scheduler with delivery to any platform. Daily reports, nightly backups, weekly audits — all in natural language, running unattended. |
| Delegates and parallelizes | Spawn isolated subagents for parallel workstreams. Write Python scripts that call tools via RPC, collapsing multi-step pipelines into zero-context-cost turns. |
| Runs anywhere, not just your laptop | Seven terminal backends — local, Docker, SSH, Singularity, Modal, Daytona, and Vercel Sandbox. Daytona and Modal offer serverless persistence — your agent's environment hibernates when idle and wakes on demand, costing nearly nothing between sessions. Run it on a $5 VPS or a GPU cluster. |
| Research-ready | Batch trajectory generation, trajectory compression for training the next generation of tool-calling models. |
Quick Install
Linux, macOS, WSL2
curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash
Windows (native, PowerShell)
Heads up: Native Windows runs Hermes without WSL — CLI, gateway, TUI, and tools all work natively. If you'd rather use WSL2, the Linux/macOS one-liner above works there too. Found a bug? Please file issues.
Run this in PowerShell:
iex (irm https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.ps1)
The source installer delegates Python 3.14, Node.js, npm, ripgrep, FFmpeg, and Python dependencies to PM. If Git is absent, it stages the verified Git for Windows archive in Hermes' tool store. It does not replace your system Git. See installation methods for the separate MSIX/App Installer package and its update ownership.
Android / Termux: A signed APT repository is available for aarch64 devices, with a
stablechannel (tagged releases) and a prereleasecanarychannel. The package includes Python, Node.js, and the TUI. Use the Termux guide, not the desktop/server installer script.Windows: Native Windows is fully supported — the PowerShell one-liner above installs everything. If you'd rather use WSL2, the Linux command works there too. Native Windows install lives under
%LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes; WSL2 installs under~/.hermesas on Linux.
After installation:
source ~/.bashrc # reload shell (or: source ~/.zshrc)
hermes # start chatting!
Troubleshooting
Windows Defender or antivirus flags uv.exe as malware
If your antivirus (Bitdefender, Windows Defender, etc.) quarantines uv.exe from the Hermes bin folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\hermes\bin\uv.exe), this is a false positive. The file is Astral's uv — the Rust Python package manager Hermes bundles to manage its Python environment. ML-based antivirus engines commonly flag unsigned Rust binaries that download and install packages.
To verify your copy is authentic:
# Install GitHub CLI if needed
winget install --id GitHub.cli
# Login to GitHub
gh auth login
# Run verification
$uv = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\hermes\bin\uv.exe"
$ver = (& $uv --version).Split(' ')[1]
[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
$zip = "$env:TEMP\uv.zip"
Invoke-WebRequest "https://github.com/astral-sh/uv/releases/download/$ver/uv-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip" -OutFile $zip -UseBasicParsing
gh attestation verify $zip --repo astral-sh/uv
Expand-Archive $zip "$env:TEMP\uv_x" -Force
(Get-FileHash "$env:TEMP\uv_x\uv.exe").Hash -eq (Get-FileHash $uv).Hash
If attestation says "Verification succeeded" and the last line prints True, you're good.
To whitelist Hermes:
- Windows Defender: Run PowerShell as Admin →
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\hermes\bin" - Bitdefender: Add an exception in the Bitdefender console (Protection > Antivirus > Settings > Manage Exceptions)
- Whitelist the folder, not the file hash — Hermes updates
uvand the hash changes every version
For more context, see the upstream Astral reports: astral-sh/uv#13553, astral-sh/uv#15011, astral-sh/uv#10079.
Getting Started
hermes # Interactive CLI — start a conversation
hermes model # Choose your LLM provider and model
hermes tools # Configure which tools are enabled
hermes config set # Set individual config values
hermes config get # Print individual config values
hermes gateway # Start the messaging gateway (Telegram, Discord, etc.)
hermes setup # Run the full setup wizard (configures everything at once)
hermes claw migrate # Migrate from OpenClaw (if coming from OpenClaw)
hermes update # Update to the latest version
hermes doctor # Diagnose any issues
Skip the API-key collection — Nous Portal
Hermes works with whatever provider you want — that's not changing. But if you'd rather not collect five separate API keys for the model, web search, image generation, TTS, and a cloud browser, Nous Portal covers all of them under one subscription:
- 300+ models — pick any of them with
/model <name> - Tool Gateway — web search, image generation (FAL), text-to-speech (OpenAI), cloud browser (Browser Use), all routed through your sub. No extra accounts.
One command from a fresh install:
hermes setup --portal
That logs you in via OAuth, sets Nous as your provider, and turns on the Tool Gateway. Check what's wired up any time with hermes portal info. Full details on the Tool Gateway docs page.
You can still bring your own keys per-tool whenever you want — the gateway is per-backend, not all-or-nothing.
CLI vs Messaging Quick Reference
Hermes has two entry points: start the terminal UI with hermes, or run the gateway and talk to it from Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, or Email. Once you're in a conversation, many slash commands are shared across both interfaces.
| Action | CLI | Messaging platforms |
|---|---|---|
| Start chatting | hermes |
Run hermes gateway setup + hermes gateway start, then send the bot a message |
| Start fresh conversation | /new or /reset |
/new or /reset |
| Change model | /model [provider:model] |
/model [provider:model] |
| Set a personality | /personality [name] |
/personality [name] |
| Retry or undo the last turn | /retry, /undo |
/retry, /undo |
| Compress context / check usage | /compress, /usage, /insights [--days N] |
/compress, /usage, /insights [days] |
| Browse skills | /skills or /<skill-name> |
/<skill-name> |
| Interrupt current work | Ctrl+C or send a new message |
/stop or send a new message |
| Platform-specific status | /platforms |
/status, /sethome |
For the full command lists, see the CLI guide and the Messaging Gateway guide.
Documentation
All documentation lives at hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs:
| Section | What's Covered |
|---|---|
| Quickstart | Install → setup → first conversation in 2 minutes |
| CLI Usage | Commands, keybindings, personalities, sessions |
| Configuration | Config file, providers, models, all options |
| Messaging Gateway | Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Home Assistant |
| Security | Command approval, DM pairing, container isolation |
| Tools & Toolsets | 40+ tools, toolset system, terminal backends |
| Skills System | Procedural memory, Skills Hub, creating skills |
| Memory | Persistent memory, user profiles, best practices |
| MCP Integration | Connect any MCP server for extended capabilities |
| Cron Scheduling | Scheduled tasks with platform delivery |
| Context Files | Project context that shapes every conversation |
| Architecture | Project structure, agent loop, key classes |
| Contributing | Development setup, PR process, code style |
| CLI Reference | All commands and flags |
| Environment Variables | Complete env var reference |
Migrating from OpenClaw
If you're coming from OpenClaw, Hermes can automatically import your settings, memories, skills, and API keys.
During first-time setup: The setup wizard (hermes setup) automatically detects ~/.openclaw and offers to migrate before configuration begins.
Anytime after install:
hermes claw migrate # Interactive migration (full preset)
hermes claw migrate --dry-run # Preview what would be migrated
hermes claw migrate --preset user-data # Migrate without secrets
hermes claw migrate --overwrite # Overwrite existing conflicts
What gets imported:
- SOUL.md — persona file
- Memories — MEMORY.md and USER.md entries
- Skills — user-created skills →
~/.hermes/skills/openclaw-imports/ - Command allowlist — approval patterns
- Messaging settings — platform configs, allowed users, working directory
- API keys — allowlisted secrets (Telegram, OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, ElevenLabs)
- TTS assets — workspace audio files
- Workspace instructions — AGENTS.md (with
--workspace-target)
See hermes claw migrate --help for all options, or use the openclaw-migration skill for an interactive agent-guided migration with dry-run previews.
Contributing
We welcome contributions! See the Contributing Guide for development setup, code style, and PR process.
Start with the PM developer workflow for activation, daily use, dependency changes, and leaving the environment. Development Setup covers the separate test environment and verification commands.
Community
- 💬 Discord
- 📚 Skills Hub
- 🐛 Issues
- 🔌 computer-use-linux — Linux desktop-control MCP server for Hermes and other MCP hosts, with AT-SPI accessibility trees, Wayland/X11 input, screenshots, and compositor window targeting.
- 🔌 HermesClaw — Community WeChat bridge: Run Hermes Agent and OpenClaw on the same WeChat account.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
Built by Nous Research.